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My Nimrodic Powers

“Oh gee, How doth the busy bee Improve the shining hours By making honey sweet and good From all the pretty flowers. Oh my, How doth this lazy I, Improve (?) the shining hours By drawing things And painting things With my nimrodic powers.” Poem by Wanda Gág   I, too, revel in my nimrodic… Read more »

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The Power of Suggestion, Rules, Parameters, and the Glob Like Layers of Learning or Why Telling Me What to Do is Now a Thing You Get to Do (for a price)

When you think about creativity, as an abstract thing, I always used to think it was something akin to absolute freedom. The freer one was, the more creative one could be. As I have aged and grown as a person and as an artist, I’ve found that creativity is often enhanced by limitations. Limiting your… Read more »

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T-Rex in High Heels

My coloring book fans are goofy! I guess that isn’t surprising. In the Artsy Fartsy Coloring with Shoshanah Marohn group on Facebook, I’m running a contest where the prize is that you get to tell me what to draw! Tina won (there can be more than one winner) and she wanted me to draw a T-Rex… Read more »

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Color Henry David Thoreau with a Wood Trush

from Birds in Beards 2: Dead Poets Edition Thoreau is kind of a cheat. He wasn’t a poet. I just thought, what a weird beard! “This is the only bird whose note affects me like music. It lifts and exhilarates me. It is inspiring. It changes all hours to an eternal morning.” -Henry David Thoreau,… Read more »

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Color Luís Vaz de Camões with a Halcyon

According to my friend Rui Afonso: XVI century… self exiled in military in North Africa due to an unrequited love. Lost his eye but lived to write the Epic poem that tells the story of the Portuguese Discoveries. Poems don’t translate well, but here is a poem of his in Portuguese (Don’t speak Portuguese? Learn it!):… Read more »

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Color Walt Whitman with a Brown Thrush

From Birds in Beards 2: Dead Poets Edition: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d BY WALT WHITMAN 1 When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night, I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you… Read more »

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Coloring Book of Portraits

I’m working on a new coloring book. It’s portraits of colorists. Do you like to color? Would you like to be in it? Email me your picture with your favorite animal at shoshanah@topbarbee.com. Working on the cover image now. Zanimal colored it for me.